Haunting

Chapter Sixteen & Seventeen

It's two for the price of one today.

Chapter Sixteen

Thaddeus kicked off his boots and grabbed a beer from the fridge in his small studio apartment. He had been working at the King’s again and every time he was there he was wracked with uncertainty.

Those things he had found, they definitely weren’t right but he really didn’t want to call. He didn’t want to put Shannon and the rest of her family through that interrogation.

He sat down on the small couch directly across from his TV and turned it on. He stopped on an episode of Family Guy and hoped that mind numbing stupidity would be enough to distract him from his problems.

It appeared to be working when his cell phone rang. He groaned and plucked it from the coffee table and answered it without checking the caller ID. If he had he definitely would have let it go to voicemail.

“Hello son,” a deep, rumbling voice said as he put the phone to his ear.

“Hello uncle,” Thaddeus said and he had to supress a groan. “What can I do for you this fine evening?”

“First, you can start by not getting smart with me kid,” the man growled into the phone. “And second you can open your god damned door.”

“What?’ Thaddeus asked in confusion and his uncle hung up the phone.

A loud banging on his front door startled him from his thoughts and Thaddeus stood up and reluctantly opened door to find his uncle Erich standing there with a scowl on his face and a large bag slung over his shoulder.

“I’ve got a witch for you to kill kid. And lucky for you she’s right here in town.”

Thaddeus visibly flinched at his uncle’s words. He had never wanted the life his mother and uncle had. He grew up with the training but he had never expected to use it.

His uncle Erich loved the hunt; he devoted his life to it. Although Thaddeus suspected that he was just a sadistic bastard who loved having an excuse to torture and kill people.

“Are you going to invite me in kid?” Erich asked and shoved his nephew aside and looked around his small apartment. “Nice place.” he dropped his bag on the couch and picked up Thaddeus’s beer from the coffee table and downed the rest of it.

“Who is she?” Thaddeus asked, ignoring the fake pleasantries that Erich was throwing around.

“Don’t know,” he said and got to his feet. “I just know where she is.”

Thaddeus clenched his jaw and squared his shoulders. “I’m not going to do it uncle.”

Erich snared at Thaddeus and stalked over to him menacingly. “You’re gonna do whatever the fuck I tell you to do boy,” he yelled, his mutilated face scrunched up in rage. “I raised you, you owe me.”

“I don’t owe you shit uncle.” Thaddeus growled. “Your obsession killed my mother when I was eleven, that’s why you had to raise me and if you ask me, you didn’t do a very good job of it either.”

“This girl’s mother is the reason Melody is dead not me!” Erich bellowed and backhanded Thaddeus sending him sprawling on the floor.

Thaddeus spat out the blood pooling in his mouth. “You went after her, not the other way around,” he said climbing to his feet.

“The girl is going to die with or without your help boy.”

Thaddeus stepped back, his eyes as big as saucers. “Then it will be without my help. Get out of my house.” He opened his door and waited for his uncle to leave.